Skip to content!

SOEPnewsletter December 2020

Dear colleagues,

A challenging and eventful year is coming to a close. We have probably all been affected by the coronavirus pandemic in some way—at the very least by having to change many of our plans. In this newsletter, we would like to share some positive end-of-year news from the SOEP. Please pay particular attention to the job openings at the SOEP at the end of this newsletter and feel free to forward the information to others.

We hope that you are staying safe and healthy, and wish you a restful holiday season. We will be operating at a reduced level from December 21 to January 11, and the SOEP Research Data Center will remain closed during this time.

We wish you a very happy holiday season and a healthy and successful 2021!

On behalf of the whole SOEP team at DIW Berlin
Uta Rahmann

© DIW Berlin/ Deborah Bowen

  •  Response rates have been good in the first several tranches of the SOEP-RKI study “Living in Germany—Corona Monitoring”. In it, SOEP respondents collect samples with home PCR and antibody test kits and return the samples for testing. Initial data are expected to become available at the end of March for internal use (see the DIW project page).
  • We received a large number of proposals response to our call for joint projects using SOEP-CoV data. We have selected 23 exciting projects so far, which we plan to present soon at: https://soep-cov.de.
  • New in SOEPhelp: user support in the statistical software R
    For data users of SOEP-Core, the SOEP provides assistance in two analysis programs. One is a stata.ado and the other - new one - an R package. After installing the respective application in Stata or R, users will find helpful information on the desired data sets or variables. See the SOEPcompanion for details.

  • Our next SOEPcampus workshops will take place (somewhat later than usual) in early April 2021. We are not yet sure whether they will be held at DIW Berlin or (more likely) as online workshops. Further information will be provided well in advance.
  • We are currently working to relaunch the SOEP Research Data Center website. For a first impression of the new website design and new functions (filter and search options for documentation and SOEP-based publications), see https://www.diw.de/soepfdz (German) or https://www.diw.de/soeprdc (English). Your feedback is welcome! Please send comments to Uta Rahmann at: urahmann@diw.de.
  • The project SOEP-Transfer has now been launched (“Sharing knowledge and creating new formats for knowledge transfer formats between science and society based on the Socio-Economic Panel study”). In this project, the SOEP team is creating a new interface to make its treasure trove of data available to (data) journalists and contemporary historians. Further information can be found on the project page.

  • Sabine Zinn, Head of Survey Methodology at SOEP since April 2019, has been appointed Professor of Social Science Methods at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. For more information, see this announcement.
  • Martin Gericke was honored by the Leibniz Association in November after successfully completing his vocational training as a Specialist in Market and Social Research with the best score in Germany. He was one of three vocational training graduates to receive the Leibniz Trainee Award. More details are provided in this announcement (in German).
  • The SOEP has several positions available in the areas of Data Access and Data Production as part of the KonsortSWD. We would be particularly pleased to receive applications from women or people who identify as women. More information on the positions currently available can be found on this page (currently only in German). For more information (or for details in English), please contact Jan Goebel (jgoebel@diw.de).

keyboard_arrow_up